City Revises Holiday Closure Plan

Santana instructs department heads to comply with agreement
After the Coalition of LA City Unions rejected its original holiday closure plan, the City went back to the drawing board to rewrite the plan so that it was in accordance with the intent of the Letter of Agreement we negotiated last spring. 
 
“This is a positive step forward for city workers. We collectively bargained an agreement. And now labor and management have ironed out our differences. The system worked the way it was designed to.”
–Rafe Garcia, Equipment Mechanic, General Services
The following is excerpted from the memo sent from CAO Santana to all department heads:
Date: October 21, 2011
To: The Heads of All Departments (excluding DWP)
From: Miguel A. Santana, City Administrative Officer
Subject: Holiday Closure Plans
The Letter of Agreement (LOA) with the Coalition states as follows:
The parties agree that all covered employees shall receive 32 paid hours off during the week between the Christmas Day and New Year’s Day holidays in 2011 in exchange for a temporary salary reduction of 1.5% from July 1, 2011, to June, 30, 2012.
It was the intent of this language that the City would suspend services during the above period to the greatest extent possible. In keeping with the spirit of the LOA, employees who are  required to work during the holiday closure period should be allowed to use the 32 hours of
“HT” time in a consecutive block to coincide with one of the following periods:
• December 20 through December 23;
• January 3 through January 6;
• November 18 through November 23;
• November 28 through December 1 ;
• 32 hours tied to another recognized City holiday;
• At an employee’s request, the full 32 hours of”HT” time may be authorized at an alternate time or as single days off.
If your manager does not understand our agreement with the city, contact your worksite organizer immediately.